Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Infusing Herbs in Olive Oil


In my quest for receiving the ultimate benefit from herbs in soap, I began researching how to get the homeopathic benefit from these delicate herbs without losing out to the harsh realities of using lye to make soap.  Because Lye is sodium hydroxide (a caustic salt), it can be too harsh and destroy many of the good properties of the herbs. One way to retain them is to infuse them into an oil.

This method is simple, like making tea but we are using oil instead of water. So that we may use the oil in our soaps, herbal salves and balms.



Let's get started on how you can create your own herbal infusions.

Step 1-  I use regular pint sized wide mouth canning jars with the lids.




Step 2- Gather your dried herbs and place them into sealable tea bags
I used about 2-3 tablespoons




Step 3-  Iron them closed




Step 4- Place sealed tea bag into the jars and pour olive oil over the tea bags
till 3/4 full and lightly tighten the lid
(do not over tighten lid until it's pulled out of the water bath when it's complete).



Step 5- Place jars into canning pot and fill with water till jar is surrounded by water but not touching the lid.


Step 6- Simmer on low for a few hours, after about 1 hour, check to see if the oils 
have changed colors. You may need to steep them a little more or less.  
It will depend on the herbs you are using.




Step 7-  Remove them from the hot water carefully, I use my canning tongs to pull them out. 
Let them sit a while to cool off. 

There you have it! 
 A gorgeous herbal infused oil that you can use in your soap, herbal salves and balms.



4 comments:

  1. What a great tutorial! Thank you so much for sharing. :)

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  2. Thank you Anne-Marie for stopping by :D

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  3. Great tutorial! I haven't tried infusing oils yet, but I hear that they are lovely in soap. Thanks for the tips!

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  4. Thank you for posting! You should try it Jenny, it's so easy and benefits are fabulous! You can also use this oil to create natural colors in soap.

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